News Updates - February 9, 2011

BCD training projects are in full swing

The 1% Training program has several classes already available this year and several more coming soon. The Oregon Structural Specialty Code (OSSC) code change training is available Thursday, March 10, 2011, at the OBOA Spring Institute in Eugene. There is also an online version of this training being presented from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, March 22, and Thursday, March 24, 2011. The next two Oregon Mechanical Specialty Code (OMSC) code change trainings will be Thursday, March 24, in Eugene and Friday, March 25, in Medford. More information on these classes will be published on the 1% Training program calendar next week. There is also a new Solar PV and the new Solar Code training available through Lane Community College’s Northwest Energy Education Institute. The 1% Training program is also requesting proposals for code change classes for both the 2011 Oregon Plumbing Specialty Code and the 2011 Oregon Electrical Specialty Code this month. The classes should be up and running sometime in April or May.

The BCD Brown Bag Lunch (BBL) series will continue in March with the first of a two-part session on the Oregon Energy Efficiency Specialty Code (OEESC). Kate Turpin of SERA Architects and Andrew Craig of Interface Engineering will be the speakers for both one-hour sessions during the noon hour on Thursday, March 17, and Thursday, April 14, 2011. In May, Jon Gray of Interface Engineering and Lisa Petterson from SERA Architects will return to the BBL series with another session on rainwater capture systems. We also have plans for a class in June with Christine Shirley as instructor on the National Flood Insurance Program, its construction requirements, and the consequences to jurisdictions for not complying with NFIP minimum standards. Our goal is to have one BBL session every month. If you have any suggestions for topics or presenters for the series, contact Sherri West at 503-373-7509 or sherri.d.west@state.or.us.

We’ve provided links above to some of the schedules for these courses. Registration for the OSSC online course will begin in the next few weeks. The same is true of the BBL courses for March and April. Information and a link to registration for these courses will soon be on BCD’s website, www.bcd.oregon.gov.

Energy Code survey

On Feb. 1, the Building Codes Division sent out a survey to the building official of each local jurisdiction to gather information on energy code administration processes. The purpose of this survey is to get a better understanding of what local jurisdictional processes look like. We are specifically looking at the amount of time spent on energy code plan review and inspection, the level of energy code expertise, and the types of information required by local jurisdictions for demonstrating compliance.

The survey is an initial step in collecting data for demonstrating statewide compliance rates with the energy code as required by the federal government for states that accepted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) funds. The compliance rate we are measuring is not an individual jurisdictional compliance rate, but rather a cumulative average for the entire state. BCD will be working with jurisdictions on collecting energy code related data over the next couple of years.

Understanding how busy a building official is, we really appreciate the time you spent if you have already taken the survey. If you have not taken the survey, we hope you will find the time to do so. The survey takes about 15 to 25 minutes. The survey period runs until Feb. 28, at which time we will begin assessing the data. If you need BCD to resend the link to this online survey so you can participate (building officials only), or have any comments or questions about the project, contact Shane Sumption at shane.r.sumption@state.or.us or 503-373-1200.

Are you linked to Permits Protect?

Have you seen the updated Permits Protect website? It's got a new look and a lot of new information for consumers. BCD featured the website at the Oregon Building Officials Association's quarterly business meeting in January. We wanted to make sure everyone knew about the new look and features, such as the site's local building department pages. On these pages there are features, such as a “tool kit” for jurisdictions to use to promote the site to their customers.

Also, let's exchange logos. You'll find the Permits Protect logo as part of the tool kit. You can use it to build a link from your site to Permits Protect. If you send us a jpeg of your jurisdiction's logo, we can add it to our page for consumers to link up quickly to your site.

Our goal is to make getting building permits as simple as possible for consumers. We'd like to give them the knowledge and tools to make the experience a lot less scary. We hope you agree that our new website is doing just that!

Oregon has successfully established itself as a premier electric vehicle (EV) launch market. Oregonians have a wide array of vehicles to choose from that are powered wholly, or partially, by an external source of electric power.

Since most of the charging of electric-powered passenger cars is expected to be at home, a residential 240-volt charging station will need to be safely installed in an EV owner's garage. To make the permitting process for home charging stations cheaper and easier for prospective EV owners, electrical contractors can use BCD's popular Minor Label Program for limited installations of a single circuit to supply the residential charging station. You may purchase permits for installing residential charging stations on the Minor Label Program website.

These electric-powered vehicles run the transportation gamut and include two-wheeled scooters and motorcycles; all-terrain vehicles, golf carts, and three-wheeled neighborhood vehicles; working vehicles such as forklifts, delivery vans, trucks, and buses; and a growing selection of more conventional passenger-type cars. The Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt are leading the pack in this category. More than 1,000 electric-powered cars and trucks are expected to be registered in Oregon by year's end with as many as 10,000 projected to be registered in the state by 2015.

Enforcement

Summary of enforcement cases presented
to the Electrical and Elevator BoardSummary report: These cases were resolved
by the division's enforcement section without going to a contested case hearing.
No action was required by the Electrical and Elevator Board.